PHARMACY Guild executive director David Quilty has cited the huge controversy around the Banking Royal Commission in recent days to sound a warning about the "corporatisation" of the Australian pharmacy sector.
Writing in Forefront yesterday he said there is a clear loss of faith in the banking system, which has shown that "it only takes a few bad eggs to undermine the public trust in an entire sector or profession".
Quilty said increasing corporate involvement in community pharmacy is likely to lead to the "commoditisation of medicines with less focus on trusted advice".
He warns about the rise of machine and online dispensing, pharmacy owners with fewer links to their local community, a lack of incentives to enable pharmacists to practise to their full professional scope, and "watering down of ownership rules in a way that puts profits before patients".
Quilty said the local pharmacy quite rightly enjoys a privileged place in communities around Australia, but as the banks are now painfully finding out that privileged place must not be taken for granted.
"As custodians of community pharmacy, we all have a responsibility to call out and stamp out unprofessional behaviour when we see it," he added.
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